


File Deleted

by jubba_bubba



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Bad Pick-Up Lines, Bracelets, Drunken Confessions, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Pick-Up Lines, Pining, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 20:11:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21105329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jubba_bubba/pseuds/jubba_bubba
Summary: Spinel was drunk. He knew it, she didn't know it. But she was drunk.Steven didn't even know that gems could get drunk, but now he did. All he could hear were Spinel's hiccups and strange noises over the loud music, which he tried to block. She was leaning against his shoulder, looking ahead of her at seemingly nothing, blushing fiercely.Steven was trying to remember how he got into this mess.





	1. Too Many Glasses

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for deciding to read my fanfiction "File Deleted"! I love this ship and I wanted to show my love through writing this fanfiction!

Spinel was drunk. He knew it, she didn't know it. But she was drunk.

Steven didn't even know that gems could get drunk, but now he did. All he could hear were Spinel's hiccups and strange noises over the loud music, which he tried to block. She was leaning against his shoulder, looking ahead of her at seemingly nothing, blushing fiercely. 

Steven was trying to remember how he got into this mess.

-

Spinel was already bored out of her mind. She agreed to do a 500 piece puzzle with Steven, since she was bored before, and he saw it. 

It quickly became so boring that she almost fell asleep.

"Don't go falling asleep on me."

Her eyes snapped open when she heard Steven's voice. 

She yawned, "Sorry, I didn't mean to."

"If you're tired, you should just sleep." It still felt weird saying to a gem that they should sleep, but he'd learnt that Spinel, like Amethyst and Lapis, also enjoyed sleeping, so it wasn't like speaking another language.

"I should, yeah. Okay, I'll-"

"Hey, you two!" Spinel was cut off by the sound of Amethyst calling for them. She was walking from the temple door towards them looking at the puzzle strangely.

"Why are you two doing a puzzle?"

"Spinel was bored, so we decided to do a puzzle together. Why?" Together, which actually meant Spinel leaning her chin on the table sitting on the floor while Steven did the puzzle sat on the couch.

"Curiousity. Anyway, you two wanna go somewhere actually fun?"

Spinel's curiosity got the better of her this time, "Where?"

"I heard there's a show goin' on right now. I was gonna go alone, but you two can join me." Steven suddenly got uncanny flashbacks from when he was last introduced to a "show", and doing a puzzle. Strange.

"Are we gonna break the law again?" Amethyst snickered at Steven's joke.

"Nah, we aren't gonna bring Pearl, but, what Spinel will bring I have no idea."

This idea didn't make Amethyst worried or scared, but excited. This scared Steven, if only slightly.

"Uh, I don't know about this." 

"I'll do it." 

Steven looked at Spinel as if she had two heads. Was she really agreeing to this?

"Hell yeah! C'mon Steven, are you gonna leave Spinel hanging like this?"

Steven ignored Amethyst's attempts into peer-pressuring him, and instead focused on Spinel. 

Who knows what kind of mess Spinel could get into? He knew that she was very clumsy, and what if something happened? What if she was left alone again? He didn't want her to have a panic attack, because he knew Amethyst couldn't handle helping someone with those problems.

Plus, they were both pranksters. They needed his voice of reason.

"Fine, I'll come too."

And so commenced the most confusing yet hilariously stupid night Steven has ever had.

-

And here he was, Spinel leaning on his shoulder, "drunk as fuck" Amethyst would say, and said.

When Steven felt Spinel moving away from his shoulder and saw her standing, he grabbed her hand.

"Spinel, you need to sit down and stay with me."

"Why?~" She was speaking in a high-pitched voice (higher than her actual voice, which was mind-blowing to Steven) and her speaking patterns were slow, as if you took her voice and slowed it down 2x.

"Because-" What could he say? Because you're drunk? Because I don't know what you'll do? Because I'm worried about you? "-I might not be able to find you again if you don't."

"But I like standing.."

"Spinel, please?" Even if she was drunk, she still couldn't resist him. 

But instead of just sitting next to him like before, she sat on his lap. Immediately Steven flamed up. 

"Spinel! That's not what I meant!"

"Really? I thought that this was exactly what you meant." This was not good for Steven, but at least he found out what kind of drunk person Spinel was.

The flirtatious drunk.

"Steven, guess what?" Spinel poked his cheek with her finger to get his attention, as if she didn't already have it.

"What is it Spinel?"

"I'm not tired anymore."

This night had to be the worst night Steven ever had.

Every so often, Spinel would try to come onto Steven. Spinel would grab his arm and lean closer into him, as if trying to kiss him, he would always pull away just in time though. 

Steven didn't want to use the excuse "I have a girlfriend" because, technically, Connie and him never actually became a thing. Or at least told each other of those kinds of feelings, they both just knew what was there.

But.. seeing Spinel like this? He felt this overwhelming need to protect her, and not just in the friendly way of "you're drunk, I'm not letting you out of my sight." He felt like: "You're vulnerable, I don't want anything happening to you. I want to protect you."

He'd never felt like this with anyone before. Not even Connie, but he assumed that that was because Connie didn't get herself into stupid situations, or situations that got her into THIS state.

Steven knew about the dangers of being intoxicated at a party. And even if he hadn't been intoxicated before, flashbacks of Kevin flashed in his mind.

He couldn't- wouldn't let that happen to Spinel. She was incapacitated, and she wouldn't be able to cope with something like that happening to her.

Steven wouldn't let anyone hurt Spinel like that.

Woah, that sounded a bit possesive. He didn't mean for it to be, Steven didn't understand why he thought like that at all. He wasn't even that close to Spinel, they were just friends.

Just friends. For some reason, that didn't sound right.

Steven stopped thinking when Spinel started to climb him and told him, "Has anyone ever told you that you look adorable when you're thinking really hard?"

Steven's face was going to be printed with red if she didn't stop. 

But then she said something that made him crash like a Windows XP trying to run a modern video-game.

"You're so cute! This is why I have a crush on you!"

Time could've stopped, and it probably did.

"Huh?" Steven needed a double take for that last part. Spinel only giggled.

"I have a crush on you! You're so nice and adorable and, I mean, who wouldn't love you?"

"Spinel-"

"Excuse me?"

Steven and Spinel turned to see the source of the third voice. Steven didn't recognise the dude that spoke- he assumed it must be someone from a different town nearby. Spinel, of course, didn't have a clue who this was.

"Am I interrupting something?"

Steven really wanted to say "Yeah, kinda," but stopped himself.

Steven even felt Spinel hold onto him tighter. He looked at her for a glance. Was she scared?

"Uh.. no, not really." Steven only said this so the guy talking to them would say what he needed and go away.

But his request was one Steven was not on board with. 

"Can I have the little lady for a while?"

"Excuse me?" Steven had no idea what cursed him to say this, he knew exactly what this dude was after, but needed to hear it again.

Spinel was clutching onto Steven, and was terrified. She tried her best to hide it.

"No.. no, thank you. I wanna stay right here." Spinel voiced, slightly shocking Steven. He didn't know she was on the same page as him- he didn't even know if she was even reading the same book!

"Aw, come on, I'm not that bad." The stranger tried to grab for Spinel's arm, but she quickly moved away.

"I don't care. I want to stay here." She was starting to get really defensive. Spinel didn't want to get defensive, but she just really didn't want to go with the stranger.

"Come on, please?"

When the man grabbed her arm and pulled her out of Steven's grasp, he snapped.

Steven grabbed the man's arm with his iron grip.

"What the hell, man?" 

"She doesn't want to go with you. Stop pressuring her into it. She wants to stay with me." Steven spoke in such a low tone, it almost scared Spinel. When Steven pulled her out of the stranger's grasp in into his arms, Spinel instantly felt safer.

"The fuck? I just wanted a good night, don't get all psycho on me." The man sounded like a whining 4 year old to Steven.

"If all you want from someone is a "good time", when will you ever want something else?"

"Tch, I don't care about your dumbass lessons. Fuck you."

As soon as they couldn't see the man anymore, Spinel looked up to Steven.  
He was still not happy and angry, but he seemed to calm down when he felt Spinel tug on his sleeve and smile up at him.

"Thanks." She whispered.

"No problem." He whispered back, "D'you wanna go home?"

Spinel only smiled up more, "Yeah. We still have the puzzle to finish."

Steven laughed. It was funny how quickly Spinel's mood could change. One minute, she's flirting with him, the next, she's a soft little fuzzfly.

He loved the name that she gave moths.

-

She fell asleep on the way home. Steven was giving Spinel a piggy-back ride home, since she suggested walking instead of getting on the bus again. It wasn't that far until they got to the temple, but it wasn't like Steven was rushing. He liked walking in the dark, with Spinel on his back, hearing her small breathing. 

It calmed him, so much to the point where he totally forgot about what Spinel had told him before.

Spinel apparently had a crush on him, and she would have no recollection of ever telling him. But he would.

It's not like he was shocked or surprised, or even upset. It eased him in a strange way. Now, he could focus on his feelings.

And he had a nagging in his head that Spinel's feelings wouldn't be one-sided.

Amethyst was still at the show- Steven and Spinel found her and told her of them leaving early. She had no problem with it, and neither did Steven. He liked it.

Steven didn't want to really go back to the temple. Instead, he placed Spinel on a bench he came by, sat next to her, and with her leaning on his shoulder, Steven fell asleep.


	2. The Braided Bracelet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next morning is always the awkward one, isn't it?
> 
> Also, have some cute fluff!

Morning came sooner than Steven wanted it to.

When he felt the sun against his eyes, Steven felt betrayed by his sleep. He didn't want to wake up, as he was having the best dream ever. However the dream was so embarrasing, Steven could never tell anyone.

Especially since the gem sat next to him was involved in said dream.

Spinel was still asleep next to him. Steven didn't want to wake her up, she looked so cute.

He grabbed his phone from his pocket, checking the time. It was 9 am on a Saturday.

They went to a show on a Friday night? That explained why it was so crowded, and why the man was looking for someone like Spinel.

"Someone like Spinel," No. He had no idea what Spinel was like. That man had no idea who she is, or what she'd been through.

Oh, so apparently he knew everything about Spinel? Yes, Steven felt like he knew Spinel better than himself.

Spinel was kind, and loving, caring, adorable, pretty, funny, considerate (when she wasn't angry), which was a whole other thing to Steven. Spinel was emotional and could go from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye. But she would always be sorry afterwards.

Spinel never wanted anyone to be upset because of her, but it wasn't like she wanted people to be falsely happy. She just wanted people to be honest.

It was, after all, part of their promise.

-

_"Promise me you'll never lie to me?" Spinel had been crying so heavily, and she did it in his bathroom, all alone. She said it was because she was told that the only place she could cry was by herself._

_"Yeah, I promise." Steven held out his pinky. Spinel held out her's too._

_"And I'd never go back on a promise to you, Spinel. We're friends."_

_Their pinky's crossed._

_"Best friends, Steven. We're best friends."_

-

He could remember it like it was yesterday. It was their special moment. The promise that formed their friendship, even if Steven was having doubts that it was *just* a friendship.

And he would never tell her, but Steven hoped that Spinel had those doubts too.

-

When Spinel awoke, she felt a really bad banging in her head. Her vision was a little foggy, but a few rubs of her eyes and the fog was gone.

Spinel could also feel a really soft material on her shoulder and cheek. Did Steven put her in his bed? Was she so tired to the point that she passed out, so Steven put her to bed? That was awfully sweet of him, but he didn't have to do that.

"Welcome back, sleepy-head." Spinel looked up to see Steven smiling at her, releasing a small "Huh?" From her.

When Spinel finally realised what the situation was she quickly jumped off his shoulder and started covering her blushing face, stumbling over her words. They eventually just came out in a jumbled mess.

"I- Sorry, I didn't- This wasn't- Uh- What do- I- Agh!" Spinel felt so embarrassed, not only from waking up next to Steven but from being so nervous about it.

Of course Spinel was getting nervous, but she knew she was just reading too much into it.

When she heard chuckling beside her, Spinel looked at the source, surprised. Why was he laughing?

"Spinel, are you okay?" Steven couldn't pull a straight face. He couldn't help it; she was just acting so cute!

"Uh.. I- uh.. y-yeah, I.. I'm f-fine." Spinel was dying on the inside.

She wanted to be poofed to wallow inside her gem out of pure embarrassment.

This was the worst.

"Do you.. remember anything about last night?"

Of course. She probably said something stupid. Spinel had a pretty solid memory (after being stood still for 6000 years, it gave her plenty of time to look back on everything she'd done) so she did kinda get the gist of what happened.

She remembered Amethyst somehow splitting up her and Steven, which was almost impossible, and tricking her into having a few drinks.

_"It tastes kinda gross, Amethyst."_

_"Nah, they all taste like that. It's normal for it to taste bad first, but after a few they start really getting good."_

_"How does that work?"_

_"Find out for yourself."_

Spinel silently cursed Amethyst, but couldn't tell Steven that it was her fault for getting Spinel drunk.

What if she spilled her secret?! Oh no, that could not have happened.

Spinel didn't want to think about that possibility.

All Spinel could get out was, "What did I say?"

So she didn't remember.

Well, that was good for her but bad for Steven. Maybe a bit of both for him? Good and bad.

Good, because then he could focus on his feelings without her ever really knowing. Bad, because she doesn't remember telling him one of the most important things ever to be told.

Should he tell her? What would Spinel do? Probably run off. She _was_ a little bit of a Tsundere, what if she hit him? Honestly, he wouldn't be surprised. She had a tendency to do that.

Steven wasn't upset or angry that she did that. It was cute, Spinel's little way of showing she cared.

"Do you _want_ to know what you said?" He had to ask first, he wasn't just going to spring it up on her like: 'Oh hey! Yeah, you told me you had a crush on me and it was super awkward, lOzL!1!!1!'

Spinel actually considered this. She already said some stupid, random stuff anyway. If Spinel _was_ unaware of what she said, she would only look more stupid.

Spinel shook her head at his offer. She would rather _not_ hear what she said.

Steven almost sighed in relief at that. Good, good. No need to abort mission, everything was okay.

..

But it was not okay. Definitely not.

Steven couldn't handle this. No one else but him knew about this secret crush, and it was a crush_ on him_.

Yet, Steven wasn't disappointed or upset at Spinel having a crush on him, it was actually the best news Steven ever received. It felt great. Yes, it would take time for the relationship to form but Steven would love to form it.

But.. then he started thinking about it. Spinel told of her secret crush while intoxicated, not in the right state of mind. What if it was just something she randomly said but didn't mean?

Steven didn't want to think about that possibility.

-

A week had passed since the drinking-fiasco. Since then, Spinel strayed from drinks that she was unfamiliar with, only relishing in the nice taste of orange juice for the time being. Steven didn't even get why she'd drink in the first place, but stopped questioning Spinel.

Steven did question one thing about Spinel; what she told him.

It tore his mind up in half.

Did she mean it? Or, did she not? Did Spinel even think of something like a romantic relationship happening between them? Did she... _want_ one to? More importantly, did he?

Spinel had grown curious one evening, and wanted to explore his room. She had heard that "your room shows who you are" and Spinel wanted to get closer to Steven. She didn't have a reason why. She just... did.

Steven didn't have anything to hide, as far as he knew. He just, sat on his bed, watching as Spinel opened drawers and looked on shelves for random things. She would ask questions and he would answer most of them, if he knew why and how he got the things he did.

_"What's this piece of plastic for?"_

_"Well, it's a figurine. A toy, I used to be really addicted to collecting these toys."_

_"What'd you use them for?"_

_"Uh.. huh. Nothing, I just liked collecting them, I guess."_

_"And humans wonder why global warming is a problem."_

Steven found some of her sassy remarkes quite funny. However, he knew if she said this in public some people wouldn't find it that funny, but he did.

And he didn't care about what they thought.

"What's under your bed?"

He was brought back down to earth by Spinel's voice.

"I haven't looked under my bed in a long time. I haven't got a clue what's under there." _It must be a sea of junk under there_, he thought.

"Let's have a look, shall we?" Spinel was slightly taken aback. _Steven_ had things under his bed? _He_ was _messy_?

It took a few minutes to move Steven's bed from the actual position it resided in. They had to move countless objects from the shelf connected to his bed, for fear that they would fall over, and since he did have a mug that could smash, neither wanted to take that chance.

After moving everything out of their way, Spinel and Steven sat in front of the small heap of mess that was hidden under his bed.

There were some comic books scattered, as well as some of his old pink shirts, some blue. There was a random deck of playing cards scattered as well, to which Steven could not answer why.

Hidden underneath the shirts and some of the cards, Spinel found a small tub full of what she could only identify as 'rubber bands', only they were smaller- much smaller- and much more colourful. She knew they were rubber bands, due to Steven showing her earlier in the week, during their bonding session, what they were. Spinel also knew of rubber bands, as earlier in her life, Pink showed her how to do a trick with them, forming the bands into a pattern (Steven later told her that it was called a "cat's cradle" on Earth, to which she was confused at, but learnt to not question the strange names the Earth had of things). Spinel looked at the box curiously.

"What are these?"

"I forgot I still had them," Steven replied, "but these are called "loom bands". They used to be really huge, like EVERYONE had them. At least, that's what Connie told me a few years ago when we first became friends. She showed me these, and we spent a whole afternoon making bracelets out of them. We even made this huge skipping rope! And it worked! Here, let me show you how to make a bracelet," Steven opened up the tub from Spinel's hands and took four random "loom bands". He put one band on his finger, and fitted another one in between it, facing vertically. He grabbed the two circles and brought them together, pulling the new circle down his finger on the opposite hand. Steven repeated this again twice, Spinel watching in fascination.

"And that's how you do it, you just have to do it a lot more until the band turns really long. There are things you can use to clip it together, but you can also tie it together. Oh, and people usually make patterns out of the bracelets, like.. switching the colours! A really popular match is black and white. Try it out!" Steven began to unravel his current bracelet, and make a new one out of the pink, yellow and blue colours. _They _were_ his colours_, Spinel thought.

Spinel decided to try this out, after all, what if she really enjoyed it? What if it became one of her favourite pastimes? Besides, she couldn't make a judgement without trying it first.

Spinel chose to go with the colours pink, both light and hot, a dark purple and black. She followed Steven's directions, and made her first four colours, in the order: light pink, black, hot pink, purple.

She thought it showed her biggest change: her colour palette.

It showed her colours, her light pink skin, her purple torso, her hot pink gem and her black tear marks. Her scars.

And before she knew it, her bracelet had become very long, to the point where Steven taught her how to clip the two sides together by hooking them together using the clip.

In that one afternoon, Spinel and Steven made so many bracelets that they were beginning to run out of clips. They decided to stop making bracelets after it had just reached Six PM.

The two friends decided to end their journey by making the same bracelet twice, one for each of them, to wear whenever they were together, or apart. They would always be together, now.

The colour of the bracelet was: hot pink, yellow, purple, salmon pink and white.

The colours of them, the symbol of their friendship.

Even if that friendship would be put to the test, the two best friends had a feeling that it wouldn't be torn apart that easily.

And they wouldn't have to wait to get their definitive answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be as soon as I can make it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> Updates will be as frequent as I can, but I will try for 3 days each update, but it may take 4 days for some, as I am still in school and it is getting busy for me.
> 
> Again, thank you and I'll see you later!


End file.
